Pope vs. Pitino was supposed to be the story. Jayden Quaintance stole the show
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky beat No. 22 St. John’s 78-66 as Jayden Quaintance led the comeback.
- Quaintance returned from ACL surgery to score 10, grab 8 and block 2 in 17 minutes.
- Coach Pope credited medical and training staff for restoring Quaintance's availability.
A college basketball game that had been a long time in the making — and one that was hyped accordingly — ended up being something else altogether.
There had been anticipation for this one ever since it was announced.
Kentucky vs. St. John’s in the CBS Sports Classic. A battle of two UK basketball icons.
On one sideline, legendary coach Rick Pitino, the man in charge of arguably the greatest Kentucky team of all time, now the leader of the Red Storm. On the other sideline, Mark Pope, the co-captain of those 1996 Wildcats and the current head coach of his alma mater.
The master and his student shared a quick hug before the game and a much quicker handshake after it was finished. During the 40 minutes in between, a new storyline emerged.
For those 40 minutes, Pitino and Pope — two key figures in one of the greatest runs of Kentucky basketball’s past — made way for the hope of Kentucky basketball’s present.
Jayden Quaintance made his Wildcats debut Saturday afternoon in State Farm Arena.
And what a debut it was.
Quaintance, nine months and one day removed from surgery to repair a torn ACL, scored the go-ahead points in the second half and helped guide the Cats to a 78-66 victory over No. 22 St. John’s in the CBS Sports Classic.
“I think he’s a big-time basketball player,” Pitino said after it was all over.
Anyone who watched what he did to the Johnnies would have to agree.
For the 17 minutes he was on the court, Quaintance was a 6-foot-10, 255-pound ball of energy. For a Kentucky team that has struggled mightily to this point of the season, he was a revelation.
Quaintance made an impact right off the bat.
The pro-UK crowd in Atlanta roared when he headed to the scorer’s table for the first time and popped again when he got the ball in the low post for his first offensive touch of the season. Quaintance got an offensive rebound to prolong that possession, and — a short time later — he took a pass from Jasper Johnson near the free-throw line, put the ball on the deck, dribbled down to the mid-post and showed everyone in blue what they’d been missing.
Quaintance spun around, pump-faked and shot a high-arching, silky smooth fadeaway jumper over the outstretched arm of St. John’s forward Sadiku Ibine Ayo. The ball banked softly off the glass and through the net, the trajectory sure making it look like that was by design.
That was Quaintance’s only bucket of the first half. He played just three minutes and 41 seconds in the period, and his Wildcats trailed 32-25 at the break.
The second half was a different story.
St. John’s led Kentucky 41-33 with 16:07 remaining when Quaintance headed downcourt for his first action after halftime. By the time he got his next breather, the Cats were ahead 47-43 with 12:02 left. And they never trailed again.
Following a stretch that saw Otega Oweh score five points in 12 seconds to help Kentucky inch closer, Quaintance imposed his will on the Red Storm.
Down 43-38, he bullied his way down to the block for his second basket of the game. A steal by Denzel Aberdeen led to a floater from Jaland Lowe, and that narrowed the score to 43-42.
On the other end of the court, St. John’s strongman Zuby Ejiofor tried to overpower Quaintance in the paint. He failed. When Ejiofor went up with a shot attempt, Quaintance went up with him — straight up, that 7-5 wingspan working in his favor — and blocked Ejiofor’s shot.
Quaintance corralled the leftovers, and the Cats headed the other way. With a chance to take the lead, Mouhamed Dioubate missed a 3-pointer. Quaintance grabbed the offensive rebound. With another chance to take the lead, Kam Williams missed a 3-pointer. Quaintance grabbed that one, too, sending Ejiofor — all 245 pounds of him — to the floor like it was nothing, tipping the ball away from St. John’s guard Ian Jackson and scoring a putback layup all in one motion.
Pope pumped his fist emphatically on the UK sideline. The Cats led the rest of the way.
After the game, Pope, Quaintance and Lowe arrived for the press conference, with three UK basketball staffers in tow. As the coach and two players sat down to take questions, that trio — UK assistant Mikhail McLean, head athletic trainer Brandon Wells and head strength coach Randy Towner — stood off to the side.
McLean, Towner and Wells were wearing matching back T-shirts adorned with a white outline of Quaintance putting up a shot and the slogan “We Workin’”.
“This is my first game back,” Quaintance said. “It’s been a long time in the making, and I couldn’t have been here — like, at all — without the help of the people on my right. We’ve been here every day since June, just working every single day. To the point where we even got catchphrases and stuff to kind of get us through every day.”
What happened Saturday had been a long time coming.
When Quaintance — one of the best post defenders in the country as a 17-year-old freshman at Arizona State last season — committed to the Cats out of the transfer portal last spring, there were plenty of skeptics who said he’d never play for Kentucky.
Amid UK’s ugly start to the season — an 0-4 record against Top 25 teams before beating No. 22 St. John’s — that skepticism around Quaintance continued. It also covered the rest of the Cats, who began the 2025-26 campaign as national title contenders and walked into this game without a national ranking.
Quaintance had to watch it all from the sidelines.
“I’ve been a competitor my whole life. I was always raised to just compete,” he said. “That’s always what I wanted to do. So it kind of sucked having to watch my team go and compete without me — not be able to help, just kind of be a voice on the sidelines. But I continued to trust my guys, and I feel like that trust that I’ve built — just being here on the bench, trying to support that way — showed on the court.
“And it kind of translated over into all my guys trusting in me. And we just were able to show out at a high level tonight.”
Pope recounted the months of hard work that Quaintance and everyone around him had put in to get to this point.
“I’ve been in this game for a long time, and I’ve worked with a lot of guys,” he said. “And I’ve never worked with a performance team that’s this dedicated and has worked this much magic — from an incredibly serious, serious injury — to what these guys did to get him back healthy.
“But it’s pretty incredible.”
Quaintance was asked if he was surprised that he was able to have such an impact in his first game in nearly 10 months. Lowe, listening to the question, smirked and shook his head. That expression said it all. No one who had seen Quaintance behind the scenes — especially over the past week or two — would have been surprised by anything that he did Saturday.
“I felt great,” Quaintance said. “I felt like my conditioning was good. I feel like my guys had, again, prepared me really well in all the practices and months leading up to now. So I felt good on the court.
“I felt like — if I was able to have time to shine — I’d make it my moment. I feel like I did that tonight.”
As ugly as the first half had been — as disappointing as the past several weeks had turned out — the second half against St. John’s was perhaps a sign of Kentucky’s season yet to come.
Lowe played only seven seconds in the first half, leaving the court abruptly after taking a bump on his now-thrice-injured right shoulder. He didn’t return to the UK bench for the rest of the half. It seemed possible that his season might be finished.
But with a few minutes left before the second half was set to begin, Lowe bounced down the tunnel and bolted onto the court, going through a rigorous routine to test that right shoulder before deciding to give it another go.
With their top point guard leading the attack and their not-so-secret weapon wreaking havoc, the Wildcats looked like a totally different team. Lowe and Quaintance were catalysts for a 14-0 run that also featured two 3-pointers from Williams and turned the game on its head.
Quaintance, who turned 18 years old in July and is expected to be an NBA lottery pick in six months, finished with 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocks. He played 14 minutes in the second half, and Pope predicted that his “minutes restriction” — in place for the time being — would be lifted soon.
As St. John’s tried to work its way back into the game toward the end, Quaintance had a little more magic left. He pulled down an offensive rebound and turned it into a putback dunk to put the Cats up 63-51 with 4:38 left. After the Johnnies answered quickly on the other end, Quaintance came up with another offensive rebound and dunked it home again.
A dead ball came a couple of seconds later, the final TV timeout of a game that was all but over.
When that whistle blew, the four other Wildcats on the court lined up, one by one, to offer Quaintance their congratulations. The teenager then made his way to the UK bench, where all of his other teammates were waiting to do the same.
As he took the high-fives and pats on the back — Kentucky fans cheering loudly in the background — Quaintance’s expression never changed.
It was the biggest, brightest smile in the building.
A few minutes later, Pitino blew by Pope with a quick postgame handshake. But that was no longer the story. A bunch of Wildcats whose dream season had turned to a nightmare had reason to believe again, their fans were realizing that reality, and the brightest UK basketball star of all was beaming on the court.
“Guys, this is not about me,” Pope said when asked about beating Pitino. “I appreciate the question, but the only thing I care about is our team growing. I love Coach. But I’m happy for our guys. I’m happy for BBN. And that’s more than enough for me.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2025 at 5:49 PM.
